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The scientist and Selfish Gene author talks to Giles Whittell about his new memoir, his childhood abuse – and what it’s like for an atheist to be labelled a fundamentalist

It feels a bit creepy to be counting pictures in Richard Dawkins’ downstairs
loo, but evidence is evidence. Most of the pictures are actually awards, but
it’s the number that counts: 21 honorary doctorates and international
prizes, framed and hung along with a certificate from the 2008 Crufts dog
show.

The dogs are around somewhere; we can hear them yapping. The loo gives onto a
generous hallway, from where Britain’s top atheist leads the way through his
sitting room and an enormous kitchen onto a terrace partly occupied by a
two-tonne limestone picnic table hewn specially for him from Dorset’s

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The world according to Richard Dawkins

September 7 2013

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Richard Dawkins and his dog Cuba, photographed at his home in Oxford last month

September 7 2013 Robert Wilson

Richard Dawkins and his dog Cuba, photographed at his home in Oxford last month

September 7 2013 Robert Wilson

Studying the response of female crickets to simulated mating calls in Oxford, 1976